Did Impact Alabama's use of Emergency Phone Systems in Alabama violate the states rules and policies?
According to the Alabama Chapter of the National Independent Tax Preparers Association, Alabama Impact's Special Interest attempt to influence public officials, write Legislation and facilitate it's business marketing through the states Emergency School Phone system should be a direct violation with local and national policy.
NITPA reported that during the states 2009 Tax Season Impact Alabama, a special interest non-profit group who operates VITA Tax Preparation sites throughout the state, issued over a 100,000 personal advertising messages to parents who's children were enrolled in the Montgomery County Public School System. State law prohibits public officials from spending public money or using public facilities for political activity. That being the case one would have to believe that a Special Interest Group, like Impact Alabama, who was writing, lobbying and influencing Legislative Interest in Alabama would also be unable to access and use the Emergency School Phone system to promote and drive their own business and legislative agenda.
NITPA's Alabama Chapter is also considering a full federal investigation into Impact Alabama's Grant Violations during the 2009 season. Federal Grant Restrictions prohibit VITA recipients from paying individuals to provide Volunteer services. Impact Alabama's use of Scholarships to pay students in return for providing services rendered as Volunteer is in question and should be a direct violation of the VITA Grant Program. New enhancements in the VITA Grant Programs for 2010 now allow Special Interest Groups like Impact Alabama millions in new funding. The enhancements for 2010 lifted restrictions on the amount of money a recipient can access:
- No limitation for matching fund calculations of volunteer services.
- No limitation for matching fund calculations of space rental value.
These new "no limit, matching fund calculations" will be a haven for Special Interest Groups. There's now little or no doubt these modifications drove the interest behind Impact Alabama's attempt to pass their own hand written Senate Bill 201 entitled The Alabama Taxpayer Protection & Assistance Act which NITPA exposed and defeated in the Alabama Legislature on May 14th, 2009. Impact attempted to pass a new law which would have allowed them the ability to write and enforce new taxes, fees, restrictions and sanctions on the private businesses who offer Professional Tax Preparation Services within the IRS's ERO Program. Electronic Return Originators are authorized and certified by the IRS to provide Electronic Tax Preparation Services. IRS authorized ERO Tax Offices help states like Alabama facilitate the distribution of nearly $1.3 billion dollars in Earned Income Tax Credits. EITC is one of the nations largest and most successful anti-poverty programs for families with low & moderate income levels. The success of this program since it's inception in 1975 lies largely with the participation of the 200,000 conveniently located neighborhood Tax Offices authorized by the IRS.
Outside Special interest groups like Impact Alabama have sought to grow their VITA business model by attacking those businesses who make their living as an authorized IRS ERO. Special interest groups seeking millions in new federal funding are on a national crusade to damage the image and business of Tax Offices throughout the U.S. by promoting and publishing the same misrepresented information over and over and over throughout the country. VITA site operates fail to mention their own statistics which the GOA reports VITA Sites offer some of the worst statistics when it comes to accuracy. Reports by the Government found that VITA sites were only 36% correct two years ago however had a drastic improvement recently when they exceeded 50% for the first time in history. One of the problems with VITA sites is they use first time tax preparers who only have 6 hours of education to go along with no prior industry experience. As VITA site recipients continue to attempt to control the industry more and more Tax Office owners are joining with NITPA the nations newest Independent Tax Preparer Association and the only association fighting for the ERO's across the industry.
